I’ve been reading ahead in LNMTL, and I wanted to keep track of what happens for other people in case they want a sort of spoiler summary of what’s to come. I’ll try to be concise as much as possible. If you’ve got questions, I’ll try to answer the best I can.
MC is Li Yao, who I’ll refer to as LY. LY is smart, loyal, cunning, ambitious, and ruthless.
Background is universe where cultivation is mixed with pseudo-science. A large universe. Humans once ruled the universe, went into decline, fiends ruled for a long time, and now humans are back on their feet. Previous 2 eras of human supremacy are 40,000 years ago, and when they had an empire post-fiend era which broke down due to fiend manipulation and civil war. Humanity is now governed by the Federation. Humanity is united, but doesn’t own the universe.
Cultivation starts from spirit root awakening, qi refining, foundation establishment, core formation, nascent soul, tribulation ascension, and true immortal.
High School Arc
LY starts out as a high school student. The school’s divided into 3 parts. Talented, kind of talented, and non-talented. LY is non-talented. His dream is to become the greatest artificer, the occupation of inventor/engineer/mechanic. LY has no parents, and makes his living by competing in the scrap yard where he is known as the “Vulture”, a moniker that follows him for the rest of the series. He has a black flying sword that he inherited from the old man who took care of him.
LY receives his cultivation cheat when he witnesses a powerful human being get run over by a train. The spirit of the powerful human being tries to possess his body, but fails because LY is actually a human from “Earth” who had somehow wandered into this universe and possessed this body first thus becoming immune. LY is put into a temporary coma where he lives the spirit’s life. The spirit is from 40,000 years ago. He was super strong, created a time machine, went forward in time, and then got run over by the train (the reason why it’s possible for someone so strong can be killed so stupidly is explained later). LY immediately becomes stronger and his spirit root % shoots up from like 30s to 50s. A minimum of 60% is required to be a part of the talented class, so he couldn’t immediately enter.
Meanwhile, LY has made an enemy of the strongest kid in the school because he got a bit too close that guy’s girl. A side effect of the power-up is that LY is now always hungry. While eating at a buffet, he accidentally gets into a confrontation with strong kid and humiliates him. LY starts training at a gym where he acts as a sparring partner for a Fiend Blade Peng Hai (who I’ll refer to as PH). PH is a foundation establishment cultivator who’s known as a genius and youngest foundation establishment cultivator.
Strong kid gets grounded, and then sends goons to beat up LY. Goons get beat up. LY continually gets stronger and soon his spirit root % is close to if not stronger than the strong kids. LY gets personal tutoring from a teacher. There’s a school competition to see who can go on a field trip for a bigger competition that college recruiters watch. LY shows off how strong he is now and easily acquires a ticket. He doesn’t get a chance to beat up strong kid here.
School goes on a country/planet-wide field trip where they compete for recommendations and scholarships for college. Those in the top 50 don’t have to go through college exams. First part is individual, trying to acquire as many points as possible by killing fiend beasts (different from fiends). Second part is dividing into two teams, trying to eliminate the other team and get more points. Stronger fiend beasts are also released during this time. All contestants are given a little robotic flying pig thing that can protect the contestant from a lethal blow and monitor the contestants’ well-being. Contestants that needed the pig protection are eliminated from the competition.
Before the contest, LY takes a look at some college recruiting booths. There’s 9 big colleges. As an artificer, he really wants to go the the Deep Sea University, the “Holy Land for Refiners.” He accidentally meets Ding Lingdang, the college recruiter from the Grand Desolate War Institution. She tries to recruit him, but he’s not interested.
LY makes his points by going to the supply depots where all weapons and supplies are stored as components that need setup, muddling all the parts together so others won’t know how to assemble them, and then selling the weapons. He also wires up a bunch of bombs together so that others can’t just steal the weapons. If they do, he’ll blow himself and the opponent up together. Those that aren’t intimated by the bomb, he assassinates them. Soon he gets first place and then slacks off as he wait for the second half.
In the second half, LY is on the red team which doesn’t have a strong leader. Strong kid is on the blue team which does have a commander-type cultivator. Blue team is beating the snot out of the red team. LY pretends to want to kill strong kid, but winds up blowing up the entire blue base up, killing all base personnel including the commander and strong kid. Red team then starts making a comeback.
In the background, all the college recruiters are super excited and want to recruit him. They’re making offers and guarantees for full rides, or at least strong recommendations if he doesn’t survive until the end.
There’s a sudden storm that cuts off communications. The robotic flying pigs aren’t working properly anymore either. Organizers choose not to cancel the contest since there shouldn’t be anything lethal on the island. One person from the blue team who’s been panicking ever since the command center died has smuggled a doping drug. He’s about to take it when he gets killed by an ape. The ape takes the drug and goes on a rampage. Multiple people die. Eventually LY kills it. As he approaches its body, he’s struck by a mental attack from the ape’s resentment.
It knocks LY unconscious and seemingly ruins his spirit root. In truth, the attack destroyed what remnants were left of the powerful being’s soul. Now LY can access the powerful beings memories at will. The restriction is that his current strength level needs to equate to the powerful beings memories. So right now, he can only access the pre-qi refining memories. He gets caught up in going through those memories and becomes stronger while going through them.
While LY is unconscious, the colleges have all moved on and withdrawn their offers since it looks like he’s now a cripple. Only Ding Lingdang (now referred to as DLD) sticks around. LY is given the Class 1: Disabled Serviceman rank due to his injuries in part being due to the carelessness of the military not calling the competition off. DLD still tries to get him to come to Desolate Institute’s fighting department. He says no.
When LY returns, he gets kicked out of high school because of strong kid’s dad’s influence. LY goes to PH’s place and trains there, planning to recuperate and get stronger. In order to still be able to take the test, LY registers at a weak high school that readily welcomes him even though they think he’s a cripple. LY communicates with the Deep Sea college recruiter and apologizes by saying he won’t be going to Deep Sea. The dean acts rudely to him saying they don’t want him anyway because he’s garbage.
The college exam comes around. LY gets first place. People come back begging for him to choose them. LY chooses Desolate Institute’s artificer department, which happens to be ranked the worse department in all 9 big colleges. He challenges Deep Sea University and says that he’ll turn the artificer department there into the new holy land for refiners.
End Arc 1.
beehugger 